Located a few kilometers south of the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Belweder Palace is the residence of the President of the Republic of Poland. Built between 1819 and 1822, the present building is the latest of several that stood on the site since 1660. It once belonged to Poland's last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski, who used it as a porcelain-manufacturing plant. Later was the residence of Russian Grand Duke Constantine, who fled it at the beginning of the November 1830 Uprising. After the re-establishment of Poland's independence following WWI, it was the residence of Marshal Józef Piłsudski Chief of State (1918-1922) and later (1926-1935) Minister of Military Affairs, who died there in 1935.
During WWII, the building was extensively remodeled for Ludwig Fischer, Governor of occupied Warsaw in the General Government of Poland. It remains one of the few original structures in Warsaw to survive World War II. In 1945-1952 it was the residence of Bolesław Bierut, and later of the president of the Council of State. From 1989 to July 1994, it was the official residence of Poland's president, but proved too small for that purpose, so the president residence was moved to the Presidential Palace. Bronisław Komorowski, president of Poland between 2010 and 2015, decided to move the residence back to Belweder.
About Warsaw as a whole, but also about others landmarks of the city, you can read in another post, here.
About the stamp, which is part of the series Signs of the Zodiac, I wrote here.
References
Belweder - Wikipedia
Sender: Kazimierz Roman Leszczynski (direct swap)
Sent from Warsaw (Masovia / Poland), on 03.09.2013
Photo: M. Osiecki
We have a new president elected this month. Nobody knows if he will still live in Belweder or in another palace in Warsaw.
ReplyDeleteI corrected, although Komorowski will leave the office only on 6 August 2015. :)
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